The first in-depth analysis of Maren Ade's acclaimed contemporary
classic, a generational tug-of-war about the meaning of life, work, and
death.
Maren Ade's tragicomedy Toni Erdmann, a 2016 Cannes sensation and Oscar
nominee, is an internationally acclaimed classic of recent German
cinema. By turns hilarious, cringeworthy, and heart-wrenching, the film
revolves around Winfried, a retired music teacher and prankster trying
to rebuild a relationship with his daughter Ines, a high-powered
business consultant based in Bucharest. At its center, this
unpredictable scenario pits one type of performance - Ines's efforts to
meet the unyielding expectations of the new economy - against another -
Winfried's anarchic role-play meant to disrupt the standardization of
life. This book, the first in-depth analysis of the film, explores the
many layers of this generational tug-of-war about the meaning of life,
work, and death. Employing Ade's trademark minimalist style, the film
deftly comments on the precarity of life; the gendering of labor in the
new economy; the re-definition of feminism by the children of the
generation of 1968; and reconfigured East-West relations in post-Wall
Europe. Lastly, in light of Ade's artisanal mode of filmmaking, in which
she regularly assumes the role of writer, director, and producer, Toni
Erdmann becomes a highly self-reflexive comment on the neoliberal
dictates of global art cinema.
